New Delhi: Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI), an advocacy body, is seized of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) goal. Under leadership of Dr Atul Kapoor, chair- policy and Advocacy Committee & Dr Girdhar Gyani, its Director General, the body has burned its midnight oil to create a comprehensive Blue print for the way forward towards attainment of UHC and success of Ayushman Bharat. The body has sent it to the union government for follow through.
The body has promised full support to government in its quest for making India truly a healthy nation. The blueprint strongly advocates the need of private sector to be incentivized to realize the UHC goal. Paper has outlined some of the simple steps by which India can achieve universal health coverage in near future.
As Ayushman Bharat is a very high talking point of union government, the Blue print assumes a greater importance. It can come handy for the government in implementing it in letter and spirit. The paper details what steps can make Ayushman Bharat a great success and what lacunae might prove stumbling block to it.
The paper says insurance schemes in general and those by central and state governments need to be restructured in terms of financial viability for providers and which has bearing on patient safety at large. There is need for promotive and preventive health initiatives through government fast tracking operationalizing of Health & Wellness Centres and at the same time involving local bodies and NGOs to educate community on adopting sanitation and good nutritional practices.India needs to realize Universal Health Coverage, which is characterised with making healthcare; (i) available, (ii) accessible, (iii) affordable and (iv) acceptable (quality)-1
The paper underlines the unmet need of facilities in Tier-II and Tier-III towns in terms of number of beds and healthcare workforce. AHPI has reiterated its earlier advice to government to incentivise private sector to set up such hospitals by way of providing; cheaper loans, cheaper electricity, accord single window clearance, tax holiday for 5-years and facilitating providing land (if land is given by government, then hospitals may provide healthcare at Ayushman Bharat Rates and these hospitals can be named as Ayushman Bharat Hospitals. Such hospitals may be allowed to receive CSR funds as CAPEX).
The body has also advocated to combine allopathic and AYUSH doctors to meet WHO norm of one doctor per 1000 population. The paper points out the shortage od specialists. It says, ‘But when it comes to availability of specialists, we have huge shortage. We are known to have 75% shortage of specialist doctors in community health centres. The only way is to open 4-5 PGI Chandigarh kind of medical colleges exclusively for PG courses. Such colleges can be established just around 200- bedded hospital and would be very cost effective as compared to UG medical colleges’.
The blue print goes at great lengths about ways to improve availability and accessibility of healthcare, to make it affordable and acceptable. The blueprint has stressed the urgent need of focus on preventive healthcare. It has given due importance to use of health information and medical technology, which is increasingly becoming an integral part of modern healthcare.
